Flordia Bound

The family is going to Florida for 5 days. It's a much needed vacation for hubby and I. We're bringing my mom along for nanny services for the little one. She doesn't mind...she gets quality time with her granddaughter and we get some free time. We'll visit Disney and Busch Gardens. Time by the pool, sipping something cool and maybe a good book.

I'm hoping for some writing time!

Making Changes

I feel like I've neglected my friends blogs and my readers for way too long. I'm going to change that, by visiting your blogs, commenting and posting here more than I do. I miss chatting with you all. I miss writing.

I want to get a new release to you by August. I'm not sure if that's possible, but if not, Sept.

My oldest daughter is getting married at the end of the month. I'm excited for that. She's going to make a beautiful bride.

Game of Thrones

OMG on the last 5 mins AGAIN. You're killing me...

In other news I'm working on revisions for Trapt in Troy. I've been lucky to spend some quiet time in the library thanks to my daughter needing to be tutored to pass the 11th grade.
I have to thank the school for this option. Her anxiety was off the charts, but her meds are kicking in and she's even talking about going back to school in Sept. That's huge for me. She's missed all of the 4th quarter and over 50 day between the 1st-3rd.
Luckily she has the grades.

Oh So Happy

The wedding plans are coming along nicely and I’m almost done paying my portion of the event. That means I’ll be free to get rid of the second job. Once that job is gone I’ll have more time for writing again. I’ll be able to do what I love the most. Sure I’m still writing. Not as much as I want to be…but at least the words are flowing.

I’m currently editing Trapt in Troy, a rock band story. I sent the first chapter to my critique partner and friend Katalina Leon. She sent me back positive feedback. I’m thrilled to be moving forward on this project.

Spring has arrived on the calendar, but if you walk outside here in Rhode Island it tells a different tale. The temps are mid-30s. Not spring weather in my mind. Oh and then there’s snow in the forecast for today. Snow!

We’re only expecting 1-3 inches and I’m sure it’ll melt over the weekend. Seriously though, I’m so sick of this weather. I want warm temps. And you can take that in a whiney voice because I’m whining over here. My teeth are chattering from the cold. Okay, so that’s a bit extreme.

The little one has been sick with croup. She was generous enough to pass her illness along to mommy. I’ve been sick with a cold or sinus infection for 4 days now and I feel like dog doo.

Other than that I’m happy with the way things are moving along. Things can only get better from here.

Writer's Block or Burnout?

In 2010 I belonged to the book a month club. What’s that you ask? It’s where I wrote a 25k book every month and submitted them to my former editor. Let’s just say 2010 was good and bad. I was fully engulfed in grief after the loss of our son. I poured my grief into my books. Needless to say I was very productive.

As 2011 came along I started feeling a little better. My grief was there but I didn’t need an outlet for it. I had learned to deal with it. Then I became pregnant with our daughter. I wrote what I could because I knew time would be scarce once she arrived.

I continued to write, but now I was produced three books averaging about 30k. Then one day I sat to write and I couldn’t. The words just wouldn’t flow. I had published almost 20 books in a few short years. I tried and tried to no avail.

Instead of trying to force it I gave up. I thought I’d never write again. For so long I’d been able to write a book, edit, and submit, turn around and start a new one. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

During that time I read. I lived life. I forgot about writing. Then I sat down and wrote three more novellas. I thought I was back in my stride. Nope. Again the words weren’t coming. I was pushing myself too hard to be everything – mom, wife, writer, and full-time employee. I realized I was burnt out.

Something paid the price and it was my writing. Now I can see the signs. When I don’t want to sit and write because it feels more like a job than fun – it’s time to step back and smell the roses.

Now I take a break to read, get a massage or just live. It may take a few days or week, but I know I’ll return to writing. It’s in my blood. 

Happy New Year

I've been busying writing. How is your New Year going?

Spread Thin

I realize you haven’t heard from me in a bit. I have a ton going on in my life. First I took on a second full time job. It’s only supposed to last through the end of the year, but with a daughter getting married next summer, the holidays and the growing cost of health insurance – I needed to do this.

The best part is it’s not in retail, which I was afraid I’d have to do. Not that I don’t like retail, but I have an allergy to late nights; something required around the holiday.

And if I didn’t have enough on my plate I’m doing my own version of Nano. I’m 26k into the book and going strong. If I make it through November it’ll be a miracle. J

What’s everyone else up to? I’d love to hear what you’re doing.

I Had a Plan

My plan had been to submit two wips I had started in 2012 – I did this! Both were rejected. Not a flat out rejection, but one with suggested revisions to make the stories stronger.

That was not in my plan.

See once they were submitted I planned to write the next book in the Bag of Tricks series. I was excited about writing Becca’s story.

On top of the shifter book, I was working on a three book series. My EC editor loves the premise and wants to see the first book. I’m working on that now.

In between those four books I wanted to finish two contemporaries under my legal name, oh and I’m working on a non-fiction book.

So as the end of March approaches what progress have I made? Not much. I’ve revised one of the rejected books and resubbed for consideration. The other I haven’t even looked at.

I pulled out book one in my series and added 1k to the 7.5k I’d already written. Becca’s story? I’ve only managed tidbits here and there. With the notes I’m making I’d like to hope once I do sit down to write the book it’ll flow with ease.

The two contemporaries? Just fleeting thoughts in my mind. I believe one had less than 1k and the other, just more notes.

The non-fiction, which I planned to write 500 words a day on? 500 words is where it left off.

Sure I could blame my lack of production on stress, but I won’t. Everyone has stress in their life. My problem is procrastination. Sometimes I wonder if I’m a true writer or just a wannabee. Okay, okay, I’m a writer. But hey, sometimes I do wonder.

The year is early, only one quarter has passed. There’s still time to get a good portion of my PLANS accomplished. Will I?  Only time will tell.

A Short Break

Hello lovely blog followers. Today is the last blog from me for a few weeks. I’m having surgery on the 19^th and will be out of commission for a bit. During my absence I’ll have some guest bloggers so please be sure to drop by and show some love.

I’ve been busy getting the house in order. My mom and son are coming to town to help out with the toddler. I won’t be able to lift or drive for at least a week. I’m hoping for some time to write, but with family here…ah, I digress.

Reading will be high on my list. I have a kindle full of books that are begging to be read.

So friends, keep me in your thoughts next Tuesday.

Thanks!

When it Rains...

So I’m pretty much over the pneumonia. I’m feeling stronger. Early last week I woke in terrible pain in my left wrist. Now I’m not one to go to a doctor unless I can’t stand it any longer. My pain tolerance is pretty high, so when I rushed off to the walk in my hubby knew I was hurting.

Results – severe tendonitis in my left wrist. Last week I spent in a sling, icing the wrist and taking Tylenol…rinse and repeat. Against the doctor’s orders I continued to write. Only the book. The reason I continued is because of a deadline.

I skipped blogged and emailing because frankly I couldn’t handle the pain. The only thing that gave me some relief was Tylenol with codeine. Downside? It made me sleep too much. I started to feel better, but today it hurts again. I guess I did too much yesterday.

While I mend, my blogging might not be every day, but I’ll do it when I can.

The positive is I’m so close to the end on this wip…sometime this week. :o)

Good Weekend

Hubby and I had a date night on Saturday or should I say afternoon date. :o) Because I’m still battling recovery I get exhausted easier and earlier. Staying out past eight or nine isn’t possible at the moment so we went to an early show – 3:30.

I was surprise how packed the place was for an early show. We saw Zero Dark Thirty. It was an interesting movie, but slow. I realize they were likely trying to “show” us how painfully slow the process of finding and killing Bin Laden was, but seriously. They could’ve cut at least 30 mins of the movie. Okay, so I confess I hate long movies. If it’s over two hours it’s too long for me. Unless it’s the Lord of the Rings movies; those I can watch. Lol

Zero Dark Thirty Trailer

For those who like looking at the sexy Taylor Kinney…he’s only in the film for the last twenty minutes. Still hot, just not there long enough. :o)

We had a nice meal afterwards and then dropped in to Best Buy. We’re both still looking at laptops. Hubby’s is old…mine not so much. Mine is only a year old, but the motherboard is going and the company didn’t want to cover it one week out of warranty. As a writer we all know how important our writing tools are. I can’t afford to buy a new laptop, but when you’re typing along and only 60% of the words are hitting the page it gets very frustrating.

I think we finally found our new babies.

I’m working hard on my recent wip. It’s nice when the muse is here and not fighting me.

Here’s to another productive week!

What A Weekend

I had to work last minute and spent over 13 hours on a conference call. Have I said how much I dislike my job lately? It’s time to start looking into new opportunities. I feel like I’ve been doing this way too long and the long nights and weekends are taking a toll on me, my health and family time. A nice 9-5 with no responsibilities…well, those I can leave at the door when I go home. I don’t want to manage people or situations any longer.

Because I had a very productive week I decided I’d not do anything writing related over the weekend and I didn’t. It was nice to sit on the floor with the baby for an hour on Sunday and build towers and houses with her. It made me realize I don’t get enough one on one time with her. She loved every minute of it.

I missed half of my father in laws birthday party because of work. I can’t get those things back.

Enough of that. It was an awesome football weekend in our house. On Saturday the San Francisco 49ers won making me a very happy camper.

And I’ll give my hubby a shout out for his Patriots winning last night. We had a house full of guests for the Pats game. It was a good time and great food.

If the Pats/49ers meet in the Super Bowl hubby told me I have to move out for the day. LOL we went to the game in December were the 49ers beat the Pats. Hubby still is having not living that one down. ;)

All his friends were like how can you be married to a 49ers fan. Look I’ve been cheering for them since the 90s…I’m not changing for any man.

This week’s agenda is a big one and I hope I can accomplish all on my to-do list by Friday. I’m taking back my weekends.

Oh and I’m excited because my son is coming in tomorrow to spend a week. He has a wedding to go to, but it’ll be nice to see him.

Happy Monday!

Guest Blogging

Today I'm over at Suzan Butler's blog talking about how Nano changed my life. Drop by and say hello!

http://suzanbutler.com/2012/11/nanowrimo-changed-my-life-by-amber-skyze/

Overused Words

I’m reading a The Writer’s Workout by Christina Katz. She offered a piece of advice I found interesting and kinda fun. Substitute overused words. Here’s the example when you want to write “very” change it to “damn”. Just think about how much fun you can have. I know I use really, very and other words a lot. If I were to change them to damn, crap or even vagina it would certainly make for an interesting read. Obviously I’d only do that during the first draft and edit them out on the second.

It’s a great way to get rid of words you overuse or to re-train your brain to use something different.

In other news I’m busy typing away at the first draft of my WIP. I hit the 20k mark this morning. I have about 12k to go before the first draft is done. I need to get it finished because edits are coming soon for Dragons and that will be an intense few weeks.

I have all these ideas floating around in my head and not enough time in the day to write. I’m enjoying the nice weather today.

Happy Thursday.

TGIF

It feels like I haven’t blogged in forever! I guess I haven’t with the blog hop and a few guests. It’s funny when I know I don’t have to blog I can think of a ton of things to blog about. When it comes time to actually write I forget those things. LOL I suppose I need to start writing down my ideas.

I’ve been busy writing and stressing over my friend Katalina Leon who is deep in edits for our co-authored book. I’m stressed because she’s buried and there’s nothing I can do. This was her baby. She knows it inside and out.  Big hugs to my friend.

I read an interview in Redbook the other day. The interview was with John Cusack. He talked about his love for music. He was asked if he could date and/or marry someone who didn’t enjoy his taste in music. He said NO. Most would be surprised with his answer, but I definitely wasn’t.

When I first started dating my husband we did talk about music – through email. He said he loved the 80s music and he was a big fan of Bon Jovi. Now when I think of 80s music, I think Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Whitesnake, just to name a few. I thought how cool that we shared the same taste. Years later I realize how different his taste is. He does love 80s, just not the hairband stuff. I wish I could give you an example, but seriously I didn’t listen to that stuff back then so I have no clue what their names are now.

Here’s the issue. We both have Satellite radio in our cars. He listens to 80s on 8 and I listen to Octane (hard rock) and Hairbands. We take his car more often than not because mine is a lease. I get stuff listening to his stuff. It drives me nuts.

So, would I have gotten in deep with him if I knew we really weren’t on the same page with music? I’m not sure. I’m not being mean, just being honest. I will say I’m glad I didn’t figure it out until I was in love with him. I’d be missing out on a wonderful life. :o)

I realized that I don’t allow my heroines to be in relationships unless the hero shares the same interests. Maybe I should switch that up a bit and give them some conflict and show they can co-exist.

Those are my thoughts for today. :o)

Happy Friday.

TGIF

It’s been one of those weeks. I’ve been trying to catch up from the conference. The good thing about the conference is I’m writing again. I’m actually enjoying the process. This week I’ve gotten to know my characters very well. So much so that I want to just keep writing. Only problem is my baby doesn’t want to watch her mom typing away. She has a huge fascination with my laptop and wants to pound away at the keys. Lol

This weekend is another busy one. I suspect most will be from here until Sept.

Thanks to random.org the winner of the print book is catscorner990. Send me an email to amberskyze AT aol DOT com with your address and I’ll mail it out to you.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

New Favorite Weekday

Wednesday’s have become my most favorite weekday. The baby goes to her grandmothers so I can do my job without interruptions and its family night. Tonight we’ll all watch Survivor together. By the time it’s over both L and I will be ready for bed! LOL Ghost Hunters will have to be watched in the morning.
I managed to get 1200 words written this morning. Yay!
Today I plan to do a brief outline of my Nano project. I say brief because if I do a detailed one the book will fail. I don’t know why, but it’s just the way I work.
Oh and I believe there are three new releases at EC that I have to pick up. MA Ellis and Reese Gabriel are on my auto-buy list. Both their new books are looking HAWT.
Happy Hump Day!

Sunshine, Water and Dogs

This is my combination of happiness. As most of you know I love summer and my pool. The pool has been opened since the end of May and I’d yet to use it. That all changed yesterday. After an extremely stressful workday on Monday, I had some wrapping up to do. By 2pm things settled down and I thought about a nap and realized – NO! I want to use the pool. So I threw on my bathing suit, grabbed a glass of ice water and my iPod. Off to the pool deck I went.
I jumped into the water – well not really. I walked down the stairs slowly until I was underwater. Cooled off and then went to relax on my gravity chair. With great music I leaned back and chilled. For the next hour I dipped in the pool every ten minutes, sipped ice water and enjoyed pure bliss. This was exactly what I needed.
I was happy the rest of the day! Though I must say my golden retriever is a little turd. Before dinner I took a nap. The two labs wouldn’t dare bother me for anything. They’re very patient dogs. Not the golden. When he feels I’ve slept too long he’ll come over and lick my face. Just once. One big lick. And when I open my eyes he’s staring down at me looking all sad. Tough to get upset at him when he’s giving you that puppy dog look. LOL

Off to do some writing.
Happy Wednesday!

On The Mend

I think I’m finally mending this time. I was able to leave the house yesterday, aside from going to doctors. The DH and I went and ordered the baby furniture, so that will arrive in 2 weeks and then he gets the fun of putting it all together.
I wish the coughing would go away. I’m still taking Robitussin with codeine at night so I can get some sleep. Today I have to get back to writing. The 31st is right around the corner and I haven’t finished the wip I’m working on.
I did sign a new contract last week for a quickie called Chasing Forever. It’s a story of two best friends who finally give in to their feelings after a tragedy. More details coming.
Unless I finish this book and sub it – I have nothing out there. Zilch, zero, nada. I have lots of ideas and only 10 weeks to write before I hit the hospital. Exactly 10 weeks from today our daughter will arrive.
So I need lots of time and NO MORE SICKNESS.
Happy Monday!

This and That...

There seems to be a lot of talk about Facebook this morning. I guess you can’t advertise contests and if I read the rules correctly you can’t do much. So I have to ask…as an author who wants to promote myself and run contests why would I choose Facebook? I’ll be honest I’d been considering it for about a month now. Everyone told me it’s the thing to do. In fact many insisted I must have a Facebook page if I plan to increase my sales.
Well I’m still on the fence and I’ll wait until all this mess clears up before I make a decision – currently I’m leaning towards not having one.
Yesterday after writing double my normal writing goal I decided to check out the series Camelot. We’ve been recording it, but haven’t sat down to watch. With the house unusually quiet I took advantage and watched the first three episodes. I really enjoyed them. I’m going to catch up on a few more today while it’s quiet again. The DH wasn’t happy because I watched them without him and now he’ll have to catch up on his own. Hey I need something to unwind after a few stressful days at work.
I’m off to write another 1k…one down one to go. That deadline is going to hit me like a brick wall I’m afraid. I have about 7k to finish the story…deadline? Three days. I’ll keep you posted.
Happy Thursday!